Ford Motor Co. is pulling back more than 422,000 trucks and SUVs because the windshield wiper arms can break, a defect that cuts driver visibility and raises the risk of a crash, the Associated Press reported on April 7.
The recall covers 422,613 vehicles in total. Affected models include the 2021, 2023 Ford Expedition, the 2021, 2023 Lincoln Navigator, and a broad lineup of 2022, 2023 F-Series Super Duty trucks: the F-250 SD, F-350 SD, F-450 SD, F-550 SD, and F-600 SD.
That is a lot of iron sitting in American driveways with a safety problem Ford has not yet fully fixed. Letters notifying owners of the risk are expected to go out April 13, but the automaker says additional letters will follow once a final remedy is determined. In the meantime, dealerships will inspect and replace the wiper arms at no cost.
Vehicle Identification Numbers covered by the recall have been searchable on NHTSA.gov since April 1, 2026. Owners can also call Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332 and reference recall number 26S24.
Ford has not publicly disclosed the specific defect that causes the wiper arms to fail, nor has it reported how many complaints, crashes, or injuries, if any, prompted the recall. Those are gaps worth watching. A broken windshield wiper in a rainstorm is not a minor inconvenience. It is a genuine hazard, especially on a heavy-duty truck barreling down an interstate at highway speed.
The company's statement of risk is plain enough: reduced visibility and increased crash danger. That language from a manufacturer typically signals the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is watching closely.
This recall does not exist in a vacuum. Ford has been issuing safety callbacks at a pace that should concern anyone who signs on the dotted line at a dealership. The company recently issued two separate U.S. safety recalls covering more than 615,000 vehicles, spanning different model lines and different defects.
Earlier still, Ford recalled more than 254,000 SUVs over a software-related problem. That action hit a different set of models but followed the same broad script: a large batch of vehicles, a defect discovered after sale, and owners left waiting for a fix.
The sheer volume is hard to dismiss. A massive software recall affecting 4.3 million Ford vehicles drew national attention and raised questions about the company's quality-control pipeline. When recalls reach into the millions, the word "isolated" stops applying.
Trucks and SUVs are not the only Ford products under scrutiny. The automaker also pulled back more than 412,000 Explorers over a steering-related suspension defect, a problem that, like the wiper-arm failure, directly affects a driver's ability to control the vehicle safely.
And beyond recalls, federal regulators have opened their own inquiries. A federal investigation targeting 1.3 million Ford trucks for transmission issues signals that the government sees enough of a pattern to dig deeper.
For the 422,613 owners caught in this latest recall, the immediate question is practical: when does the fix arrive? Ford says dealerships will inspect and replace the wiper arms free of charge, but the company has not yet determined the full remedy. That means a second round of notification letters is still to come, at a date Ford has not specified.
Owners are left in a holding pattern. They know the wipers can fail. They know the risk. And they know the manufacturer does not yet have a complete answer.
The Super Duty trucks on this list are workhorses. Contractors, ranchers, fleet operators, and tradespeople depend on F-250s through F-600s to haul loads and get jobs done. The Expedition and Navigator are family haulers, vehicles that carry kids to school and families on road trips. A wiper failure in clear weather is an annoyance. A wiper failure in a downpour on a two-lane road is something else entirely.
Ford deserves credit for initiating the recall and offering free repairs. That is the legal baseline, but it is also the right thing to do. What remains missing is detail. How did the defect get past quality checks on models spanning three production years? How many owners reported problems before the recall was filed? Were there crashes?
None of those answers are available yet. The company's growing list of large-scale recalls makes those questions harder to wave away with each new announcement.
American consumers, especially the truck buyers who form the backbone of Ford's revenue, have a right to expect that basic components like windshield wipers work as advertised. When they don't, and when the fix is still being figured out weeks after VINs hit the NHTSA database, the burden falls on the people who already paid full price.
Owners of affected vehicles should check their VINs on NHTSA.gov now and contact Ford at 1-866-436-7332. Do not wait for the letter.
A company that asks customers to trust it with their safety ought to have the answers before it ships the product, not after.